Church of the Holy Sepulchre: Tours & Tickets

Bus arrived at 7:30AM, took us to a collecting area, we had an excellent guide Amir, very knowledgeable, open minded & ready to answer all types of questions. We stopped on the way to get Coffee, arrived in Jerusalem around 9:00AM .. We had a view of the city from over the mountain. Then went to the Lamentation wall, the Via Dolorosa, the church of the Holy Sepulcher, it was impossible to enter Jesus's tomb because of the long queue. Left to the bus at 12:15PM to go to Bethlehem. There we were guided to a restaurant to have lunch (Costs around 16$) I had my lunch with me, I just took a drink. We went a walking distance to the Church of Nativity, visited inside with another guide Martin. Before leaving Bethlehem we stopped by a gift shop. Then trip back to Tel Aviv, we arrived at around 5:15PM My next visit will be on my own, there is still a thousand of other sites in Jerusalem that you can never see in a guided tour. A new train takes you directly from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

My boyfriend and I joined a group of 40 tourists both national and international to visit and learn all about Jerusalem followed by some down time at the Dead Sea. A few tips for people like myself who haven’t travelled in this area before. Girls wear a skirt or pants or dress covering your knees and take an over shirt or scarf to cover your shoulders and chest. You don’t need to wear the scarf all the time but you cannot enter some of the sites without this attire. Men can wear a long short and shirt but if you’re Aussie we wear short shorts haha so maybe pants and a change of shorts for later. This wasn’t really something we were briefed on which wasn’t a negative but good to know. The insight our guide gave us was amazing, which he explained while exploring three of the Jerusalem quarters. Our guide was very knowledgeable explaining the rich history in a reality lovely way. Lunch was delish and the perfect amount of downtime by the sea afterwards. Highly recommended!

Norbert, our guide, was phenomenal. He was super knowledgeable and kept the group on track, despite some tour members who were easily distracted. Overall, we had an enjoyable time and learned plenty. There were areas that disappointed us about the tour: - this tour picks you up, then you go to a central bus area where you wait again. With all the transfers, traffic, and delays, we didn’t get to Jerusalem until 10:15am. It was 3 hours before the actual experience in Jerusalem began. It would have been good to know. - upon arrival in Old Jerusalem, we were taken to a store for 30 minutes. We were given a lecture by the store owner and pressured sales. We were totally uninterested in 30 minutes of our tour being taken up by a scam for extra revenue. Other than those two areas, it was a great way to spend the day (though long) and, again, Norbert deserves plenty of kudos for doing such a great job.

This tour to Jerusalem was a great experience, since we only had a few days at Tel Aviv and wouldn‘t have gone to Jerusalem otherwise. The tour includes all the main sights in Jerusalem, including Yad Vashem. While well organized, don‘t expect to have much time to explore individually or to stay at one of the religious sights for a little longer. Quite to the contrary: You will only stop for a few minutes at each location, half an hour at best, which is barely enough to grasp the historical setting surrounding you in Jerusalem. I chose not to give five stars because this tour included a few cringeworthy moments: I could live with the break at an Elvis Presley fan‘s coffee place, but the souvenir shop, at which you could buy all you allegedly need to forge your own relic (...), and the busy (yet ok) lunch restaurant were not really necessary.

Guide was not the very best, time given for HOLY CHURCH of sepulchre was too little just 40mins, considering the huge crowds and the importance of this church, the long distances we travel to come n expenditure involved, we certainly wished to see Jesus tomb, in the bargain we got late coming out, and our guide had left us behind, we missed the bus, without a phone we requested a shopkeeper and contacted the company, we were surprised with thr promptness that the company contacted us back and kept a taxi waiting for us and helped us join the bus again. However the tour ended much before time within 8hrs when we were told 11hrs, hence we feel at least 1hour should be given for thr holy church of sepulchre considering the crowds there to worship and waiting in line for Jesus tomb.